7 Bulletins for February Patch Tuesday

Microsoft on Tuesday released seven security bulletins, including two bulletins that addressed critical flaws affecting Windows. The other five bulletins included patches for flaws with a maximum severity rating of "important" in Windows and Office.

One of the critical bulletins (MS06-004) addressed a remote-code-execution flaw in Internet Explorer 5.01 running on Windows 2000, both with Service Pack 4. Like several recent Microsoft security problems, the flaw involves Windows Metafile (WMF) images. According to a Microsoft FAQ included with the bulletin, the flaw is unrelated to the other recent WMF problems. Fixed in a cumulative update for Internet Explorer, the WMF flaw is the only new flaw patched in the bulletin.

The other bulletin with a critical flaw, which could also allow an attacker to take complete control of a user's machine over the Internet, is MS06-005. The flaw involves the way Windows Media Player handles bitmap files, and is critical for Windows XP SP1 and SP2 and Windows Server 2003, Windows 98/SE/ME and Windows 2000 SP4. Unlike many recent critical flaws, the vulnerability was privately reported to Microsoft.